Guide to survival during the war. War Survival Tips

We do not know which of modern wars experienced by the author of this article. But he tried to give useful practical advice on the life of a civilian in war conditions, and many of them may be useful. The text is published in abbreviated form.

Panic

Immediately after the bombings, at first quiet, and then complete panic began. Everyone who could, rushed out of the city. Even those who seemed to be prepared still succumbed to Her Highness's panic. They drove out for blocks. Throwing everything along the way. Just to be able to leave. Those who could not leave remained in the surrounded city to die. But they also sought refuge in basements and cellars. Needless to say, the panic, which lasted for a relatively short time, brought disorder and chaos into the lives of the inhabitants. Instead of leaving the city much earlier, trying to pick up and transport much more, people who lived in the illusion of the world to the last, succumbing to panic, simply fled. Without anything. Instead of finding out WHERE to run in advance, then they simply ran to “nowhere”.

From this, the general conclusion is: do not try to hide the truth from yourself, do not try, to the last, to live the realities of the world. No matter how much you prepare for a cataclysm, panic and confusion will still push you to thoughtless decisions and actions. It is these first friends of yours that will turn out to be the most destructive for you, but do not try to sit for a long time either. Long “thinking” is the path to inaction.

At the same time, do not try to cover the entire expected list of disasters when preparing. This will lead to the fact that, with sufficient probability, you will not prepare for any. Do not squander your energy and resources on discussions and preparations for a multitude of arctic foxes, prepare for a universal scenario. And in terms of means, and in terms of capabilities, it is much easier. Basically, you have to survive in your home, so use the knowledge of your court in order to adapt to the conditions that arise.

First, don't try to pack a bunch of stuff. There are things that are necessary, and there are things that just get in the way.

The thing is very necessary, but not when you have a dozen knives and everything is needed for something. In field conditions, you do not need special knives for cutting anything and everything. Therefore, postpone them until calmer times. Hide with excess dishes and things in the shed, and use one or two. It seems that this is not an important point, but practice has shown that in the event of an attack by marauders, the abundance of cutting and stabbing at hand does not help, and often interferes with the defense. In addition, the abundance of knives in the house can lead to the fact that during the fight the enemy will grab your own knife lying on the table and use it against you. So let the knife be alone, and it will be in your hands.

Axe

Often, in the event of a threat of attack on housing, it is the presence of an ax in the house that the layman hopes most of all. It would seem that there are only pluses. And heavy, and sharp, and you can heat it with a butt, but, time-tested, an ax in the house is a weapon of a person who knows how to use it in a limited space. In the case of the layman, the ax is often useless, and sometimes dangerous. Since it gives excessive confidence, but does not give skill.

Question: how will you use it in case of an attack? Most of the neighbors I interviewed stated that they would wave in front of them in order to keep the enemy from getting close. But the request to demonstrate this process to me led, at best, to damage to the furniture and walls in the house, and at worst, to minor injuries, such as bumps, bruises, cuts. Therefore, a person who picks up an ax must at least learn how to use it. At the same time, it is important to learn how to wield an ax within the intended place of use. Simply put, what prevents you from taking a small hatchet and walking through the rooms in advance, waving it? He himself will "tell" you where and how it will be necessary to act, where to swing and hit with full force, and where it is better to poke at the enemy without any swing in the chest or face. It remains only to remember the order of movements in certain places of the apartment, this will not only give you the opportunity not to get confused, but also help prevent the criminal from imposing his will on you.

In general, any item in your home can serve as a weighty argument in your hands. Especially if the life is at stake, yours and your relatives. So feel free to walk through the rooms with various household items. Let your wife laugh at the fact that you are walking around the rooms with an extension cord, fork or rolling pin, give her such pleasure. When walking around the house, try to touch various objects, as if you were grabbing a chair or clothes rack with your hand. After a short excursion, you will realize that you do not know your place of residence well. You simply did not know about the use of some things in defense.

Example: one of my acquaintances, a man of about fifty, quite overweight and, in ordinary life, suffering from shortness of breath, was able to perfectly resist the pressure of two young marauders in their attempt to profit from his own apartment. Despite the fact that one of the attackers was armed with a gun, however, as it turned out later, not loaded, and the other was holding a knife in his hand. The man successfully used a hanger standing in the corridor, knocked out the eye of one of the attackers and bled the face of the second. When he forced them out of the apartment onto the landing, the neighbors intervened. It was possible not only to prevent the robbery, but also to stop the subsequent criminal actions of these people.

Gun

I do not argue that the presence of a gun in the house is a positive factor for the defender. Especially if it is a multiply charged Saiga. But even the presence of a gun at home does not save completely, but only increases the chance of success for the defender. The main thing is to walk through the rooms with a gun in advance and find the most successful places for defense.

It is also not superfluous to note for yourself the sectors of shelling of the attackers from the windows and think over options that interfere with retaliatory firing. Example: your obedient servant, long before the war, it must have happened, went around all the rooms with his father and “shooted” all the sectors of fire for himself. During the war, thank God only once, this experience really came in handy. At the same time, an old 12-gauge single-barreled shotgun was in service, but even this “karamultuk” was enough to head. When there were three of them from the last window in the direction of the attackers, shots began to be heard, and the return fire did not bring harm to the defending person, the looters, first bypassing the house, climbed over the fence, and after I continued shelling from another window overlooking the courtyard , just retreated. In the morning I found an empty barn opened, but it was empty even before they arrived. But in the house itself, on the advice of an experienced person, I would be afraid to fire. Because there is an option to get into their relatives. At the same time, reloading a single-shot gun in a short fight is not realistic.

Marauders

Now I want to touch on the topic of marauders. At first, there are few marauders. Before the war and at its very beginning, the authorities still pay attention to them, they catch and shoot them, but as the conflict drags on, the number of marauders grows. Most marauders are loners driven to plunder by hunger. They mostly look for empty houses, take food and water. These people are basically either unarmed or their weapons are out of order. They are very afraid of law enforcement agencies and do not go to places inhabited by people. They usually take away food, and even then only what you can carry in your hands. But as the conflict grows, with the weakening of the attention of the authorities, with a decrease in the amount of food left during the flight, and most importantly, with an increase in the number of marauders themselves and with the appearance of captured weapons, loners, shy and not arrogant, begin to gather in groups, five to ten people, and already attack residential buildings. Such groups are no longer afraid of power, because there is no power, they are not afraid of the layman, because there are many of them, they usually come during the day, disguised as army soldiers and police. These groups are much more dangerous.

It is practically useless for one family to fight such a group. It helps to create a self-defense group from the residents of the quarter, in the private sector, or one multi-storey building. At the same time, the population already also has weapons, and even a large group of marauders, in a collision, becomes difficult to fight. We must not forget that the marauders are mostly the same peaceful people who went out to plunder first from hunger, and later for the sake of profit. Imagine, the transport is checked by the troops and the police, the military will still react to prolonged shooting in the aisles of one district, if only because there is a possibility of a breakthrough behind enemy lines, the residents do not give away their stuff for free. The work of a marauder is hard and not grateful. His constant tactics: a quick "collision", and no less quick "rollback", and with a profit or with a bullet in his head, it's already as lucky. Therefore, usually during the day, children or women are sent to explore. And only when full receipt information about the presence of weapons and the number of people, the gang decides whether to raid or not.

Residents can be advised to immediately create a self-defense detachment, arm themselves and think over fortifications that block the entrance to the territory of the yard or to the territory of the quarter. Usually, both the military and the police are quite supportive of this method of law enforcement. There are several reasons for this favor. First, the duties of law enforcement are partially removed from the military and the police. Secondly: they receive a detachment capable of detaining both a criminal and an infiltrator, and under certain circumstances, also signal a breakthrough in their enemy sector. Thirdly, the barricades of self-defense units are excellent for emergency defense in case of an enemy breakthrough.

Therefore, both the military and the police, in such cases, "through their fingers" look at the presence of unregistered weapons, and sometimes they themselves bring outdated and broken ones for sale to the detachment. In addition, the self-defense detachment is usually entrusted with the functions of accommodating the arrived units to stay, as well as providing provisions. In addition to the above, the creation of a detachment serves to bind the front and rear by mutual responsibility.

barriers

The installation of barriers that prevent looters from entering the territory of the private sector. At the beginning and end of the quarter, barricades are built from improvised materials. This takes into account the factor of using the road for the transport of parts or ammunition. In the corner houses there are resting places for members of the detachment, as well as a place for cooking and administering natural needs. Two to four people are on duty at the entrances, the rest are located at home. After a certain time, sentries are replaced. There were cases when a detachment of ten people was armed with only three guns and one revolver, but, seeing sentries with weapons, even large gangs of marauders did not dare to attack the quarter.

The device of barriers to impede the penetration of looters into the territory of the courtyard of a multi-storey building is practically the same as above. The only difference is in the material. In the fence of multi-storey buildings, more furniture is used than boards, logs, sandbags.

The question is often asked, why a gun, if there is a shaft of orphan weapons around? I’ll answer the question with a question, “Have you often met ownerless weapons in working condition, and even with cartridges and in your own name?” After the Russian units entered the city, the gun was taken away, scolded a little and released, but the guys who found machine guns or cartridges for them ended up in a filtration camp for a long time. Many after that either did not return, or returned, but disabled people.

Shelters

Probably, I will not tell you a secret if I say that the neighborhood with warring opponents is detrimental to a peaceful layman. All "gifts" that got to the wrong address go to the civilian population. If we add to this that a common person is not familiar with the sound of a mine, does not distinguish by ear a bullet flying past, does not know where and with what weapon the fire is fired, then the picture is simply deplorable. For every soldier killed, five or six civilians are killed. And sometimes the right shelter saved the life of more than one or two people. Not many can boast that they either already have a shelter or they have funds for the emergency construction of it, so I propose for your consideration the construction of shelters in outbuildings.

Cellar

The cellar is located in a private house, and this makes it the first refuge for the family in case of war. It would seem that it was easier than ever, just opened the lid, brought a family there, brought food, closed the lid and everything was in order. But more than once I watched the picture, people in the cellar died from suffocation, from an explosion, a collapse of the house, from the penetration of carbon monoxide. There are many reasons for death. Therefore, let's look at ways to prepare the cellar into the simplest, but strong enough and comfortable shelter.

First, the walls of the cellar must be made of bricks. And the thicker the wall, the greater the chance of salvation. The roof of the cellar should in no case serve as the floor in the room. Conclusion, the roof of the cellar should be strengthened as much as possible. As an example, we lay pipes on brick walls, fix the formwork from below, fill it with concrete half a meter thick. After the concrete has hardened, earth is poured from above with a thickness of at least half a meter.

It follows from this that the cellar must be initially deep. And even such a strengthening of the cellar does not give a full guarantee of salvation. From the cellar there must be an emergency exit to the street. In the case of my house, it was an iron pipe half a meter in diameter. I don't know who and why dug it in, but this "emergency exit" allowed me to live to see the writing of this book.

Shelves in the cellar should be located taking into account the fact that during the bombing they turn into places for people. When building a cellar, be sure to consider a small niche for a toilet and water. The function of the toilet in the May cellar was performed by a bucket with a lid. After the bombing, it was emptied into outdoor toilet. A forty-liter flask was adapted to store water.

Also, ventilation must be carried out in advance in the cellar. In the case of my house, the ventilation was a pipe with a diameter of one hundred and fifty, coming out of the cellar at a distance of half a meter from the walls of the house. The floor of the cellar, originally earthen, was covered with planks for warmth. There was a small stove in the corner. The chimney was previously carried out outside the house. I overlaid a piece of the floor under the stove with bricks to eliminate the possibility of igniting the floor during the furnace. These are the measures taken by me in advance, helped me to significantly strengthen and equip the cellar.

Basement

Since the basement is usually fortified, we will pay attention to its interior decoration. Basement shelves, unlike cellar shelves, are initially wider and deeper, since in peacetime the basement is the main storage place for household food supplies. So they don't need modification. All that remains is to prepare the place for the stove, insulate the basement walls, for example, with plywood, place a primitive bathroom and place to store water, install furniture, insulate the doors with heat-insulating, non-combustible material.

It's good when a person has his own house! What should a person who lives in a high-rise building do? Basements are usually flooded with water, they are inhabited by all kinds of living creatures, cockroaches, fleas, mice, rats. And is there enough space in the common basement for all the inhabitants of the house? There are many questions, but there is only one answer: if you have time to prepare, then even if in cramped conditions, you can survive. I am telling you as a person who has seen with his own eyes the inhabitants of multi-storey buildings who survived in the basement. I went down into these basements more than once, and despite the fact that they were not prepared, hundreds of people calmly survived in them. Imagine if these people chipped in in advance and jointly prepared their basement for subsequent living.

I’ll make a reservation right away, I didn’t live in a multi-storey building, I don’t have my own experience, also out of all the basements under multi-storey buildings, I saw only one, more or less equipped, but even this rather primitive arrangement allowed the residents of the house to live with sufficient, for wartime, comfort. Judge for yourself. Example: a nine-story house with eight entrances, of course, eight exits, all exits are open, openings are punched in the walls of the basement between the entrances. According to residents, this is done so that when one of the sections is destroyed, people can get into another and escape.

It is not easy to heat such a basement, so there was no talk of heating, but the residents cooked food on the rims of a truck. These makeshift stoves stood in several places in the basement near the windows. That is, they were drowned "on black". The same stoves served to light the basement.

Along the walls were mattresses, folding and mesh beds for residents. Naturally, solitude was out of the question, too many people sought salvation in this basement. The windows outside were covered with sandbags. When I asked about lighting and natural ventilation, I was told that lighting and ventilation had to be sacrificed due to the constantly flying fragments and bullets. After the death of several people under constant fire, the remaining residents covered the windows with sandbags, and littered the top with garbage. Only those windows that were on the side opposite the shelling let in light and smoke from the fires.

The products were also shared, the residents simply allocated one room for food and instructed the old men to guard it. Water was poured from the pipes into improvised dishes. And they replenished, if possible, with melted snow and extracted from the broken houses of the private sector located behind the house. In the same place, in rare moments of calm, food was mined together. Food was provided by the whole world. Cooking was entrusted to several women.

Thus, the community was able to survive, despite the fact that the house was under constant shelling, part of the house was destroyed by a fallen air bomb, it did not reach the basement, it exploded on upper floors. Lucky. In the yard I counted seventeen graves. These were the graves of the inhabitants who died during the first bombings.

Water

Water, how much I had to endure because of its absence! Although the events I took for analysis took place in winter, the lack of water was felt everywhere.

First: during a disaster, remember that water is not clean. All those places where you are used to taking water from may either be in the sphere of influence of one of the warring parties, which means that access to the source will be extremely difficult, or located in a direct war zone, which means that going for water can cost a life, or the water in the spring may not be suitable for drinking at all.

The first thing you should pay attention to is the separation of water dishes. Select the dishes for drinking water and the dishes for technical water. It is most convenient to keep drinking water in metal 40-liter flasks. The lid of such a flask closes tightly, and debris does not get inside, the same factor affects the avoidance of water loss.

Already during the first bombings, the water supply stopped supplying water, and subsequently it froze altogether. Therefore, it was necessary to look for sources of water, as well as ways to transport it.

Any car passing through the territory occupied by the enemy automatically goes into the category of the enemy. No matter what signs you sculpt on it, no matter how hard you try to pass unnoticed, sooner or later either it will be requisitioned from you, for the needs of the front, or you will fall under shelling, sometimes arranged only in your honor. Therefore, a bicycle and a wheelbarrow are your reliable allies and helpers. The presence in the house, apartment, cars in general is luck in itself. This simple vehicle will help you in many of your affairs, such as obtaining water and food, transporting things, transporting the wounded, transporting the furnace material you have obtained.

But from the laudatory ode to the wheelbarrow, let's move on to the places where water is stored. There are several such places in any city: fire stations, hospitals, sanitary and epidemiological stations, technical wells, military units, city reservoirs. In any fire station, hospital there are special water storages, underground reservoirs. The water in them is usually disinfected. It is constantly updated and at the time of the emergency is usually intended for distribution to the population, but distribution usually does not occur due to the fact that these places are the first to be captured by the military and access to water is blocked. The same embarrassment awaits the seeker of water in military units. What remains, as a rule, is a sanitary and epidemiological station, a fire reserve of schools, which is not available in all schools, and natural sources of drinking and technical water.

Sanitary epidemiological station. Usually people do not take seriously this very important and serious institution, but in vain. It was the sanitary epidemiological station of the city, located in the area of ​​​​my residence, that became, if not the only, but a reliable source of drinking water. Although the stock available at the sanitary and epidemiological station is less than the stock of underground tanks of fire departments, this organization takes disinfection and subsequent storage more seriously than even the Ministry of Health, because the fight against the occurrence and spread of epidemics is a direct responsibility of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service (SES).

Example: when drinking water brought from fire tanks, even after boiling, there was some discomfort in the stomach and intestines, diarrhea, flatulence, constipation, pain, but when drinking water brought from SES, even without boiling, nothing like this was felt.

The next source of water during the war is wells, wells, springs. Water from these natural sources divided into: usable and technical. Unfortunately, in the area of ​​​​my residence there was only a well with technical water. This water, under normal conditions, is hardly suitable for consumption, since it is mineral, but with a general lack, this water was also perfectly used.

Do not forget that a decent amount of water remains in the water pipes after turning off the pumps. This is especially noticeable in the case of a person living in a lowland. This water is also usable, and it is important to be able to get to it. I managed it like this. After the life-giving stream stopped flowing from the tap, I climbed into the well for supplying water from the yard to the house and, having unscrewed the inlet to the house from the tap, for some time drew water directly from the pipe. Since my house was not in the very lowland, the water pressure was enough for me for two weeks.

For technical needs, such as laundry, washing floors, flushing the toilet, bathing, I collected rainwater and snow. For these purposes, around the house under the gutters, I had barrels. By using this, though not very pure, water, I managed to maintain order in the house and save such precious pure water.

Nutrition

No matter how much you accumulated food supplies before the war, sooner or later, the supplies are depleted. Consider ways to replenish supplies. The first way is a trip to the store. No, do not think that during the war the shops do not work, but this does not mean at all that there are no products in them. No one advises you to break into the stores standing in the district on the first day of the war. It’s just that during the war, it’s not uncommon for air bombs and shells to hit the buildings themselves, and the destroyed building is no longer a store, but not just ruins. So, your obedient servant, being an avid smoker and especially suffering from a lack of tobacco, became the proud owner of two full boxes of Belomor, simply by visiting a stall broken by a shell.

Since you are not one of those who had the happy thought of visiting the store at such an inopportune time, then you run the risk, at best, of simply being in front of empty shelves and utility rooms. But even so, don't despair. Walk around the store again, and fortune may reward you for your attentiveness. For example, in a completely empty room of the former store, I managed to find a box of matches, a box of candles, three packs of salt, several packs of washing powder, albeit soaked, but completely preserved, and, as if in mockery left to me, unarmed, a sawn-off shotgun of the sixteenth caliber. This sortie added substantially to my depleted supplies.

But you should always take into account the fact that in such premises all kinds of “surprises” left by past visitors to the store are possible. So in one store, after a careful examination, I removed three stretch marks and one grenade shot. In the case of haste and inattention, the fate of a cripple would have awaited me.

In addition to stores for replenishing the grocery and household basket, various bases are of interest. But you need to take into account the fact that the idea of ​​looting comes to mind not only to you, and the people will rush to take away food and household goods much earlier than you, while despising the danger of being killed.

Basically, bases and storage facilities are plundered right during the hostilities or immediately after the cessation of them. Residents of nearby streets, who have suffered from shelling and bombings more than you, who have finally eaten up their supplies, will attack the “ownerless oasis” faster than you. Sometimes, having paid a very “high price”, they will take out all the most valuable things from this “oasis”, but even after such a quick and greedy robbery, much remains either unnoticed or left as second-rate. Example: after the base was repeatedly raided by marauders, I managed to get a bag of flour and a bag of peas, and on my return visit, another box of caramel sweets and two cases of bottled kerosene. Which also decently replenished my reserves. An essential addition to the diet is the meat of dead agricultural workers mined in the minefields. animals.

So, for helping the owner in pulling a wounded cow out of the minefield (the animal, frightened by explosions and shooting, broke through the barn door and ran away, but fell into the minefield on the way), after joint cutting of the carcass, I got a leg and ribs. And after the shells and bombs began to reach the streets of the "upper suburb", at night a herd of goats and sheep came to me "to seek political asylum". Naturally, their urgent request was granted by me. Since there were not many people left on the street, mostly old men and women, all these “gifts of nature” were divided among everyone.

Fishing. Many imagine her on the bank with a fishing rod in her hands, but wartime fishing is strikingly different from peacetime fishing. The first difficulty lies in the fact that reservoirs suitable for catching fish are often on the other side of the front from the fisherman. But, even if the reservoir is right next to it, it is likely that it will be under fire. If this is not the case, then the “fishermen” in uniform should be afraid. Many units that stood on the banks of reservoirs did not disdain to diversify their diet with fish. But there could be no talk of fishing rods. The lack of fishing rods was compensated by the presence of grenades and grenade launchers.

The whole process happened like this, a truck or an armored personnel carrier drove up directly to the water. The participants of the "fishing" came out. Grenades were thrown into the water. Young guys were raking jammed fish near the shore, usually two or three bags, a group of fishermen got into the car and left for the location of the unit or checkpoint. The whole process took no more than half an hour. That's all military fishing.

“Where is the romance, where is the ear and everything that comes with it?” - the reader will ask, and the romance went to the locals. Buried in high reeds, the local fisherman waits for the departure of military fishermen and, making sure that his presence has not been detected and that the military have retired far enough, on a hastily assembled raft or on a leaky boat, sets off in search of fish from the shore. He runs the risk of getting a bullet or a fragment, he risks drowning or catching a cold, but the desire to somehow replenish his depleted reserves pushes him in search of fish. After the explosion of three to five grenades, there are a lot of stunned fish. The soldiers, on the other hand, take only the largest, and all the little things, the average ones, are usually ignored. It is for this trifle that a desperate fisherman swims.

Since there were many desperate fishermen, and the soldiers during the assault perceived any civilian as an enemy, there were many corpses in the reeds and on the shore. But for the sake of a bag of fish, a hungry person is ready to take risks. So I, succumbing to the persuasion of the neighbor's boy, his description of the ease and effectiveness of the sortie, saddling my bike in the company of three neighbors, went on such a fishing trip. I will not describe how we went around the rubble and roadblocks, they will be discussed separately. Arriving at the shore of the pond and sitting in the reeds, we waited for the military. We didn't have to wait long. About half an hour later an armored personnel carrier rolled up to the shore. Having shot for fidelity at the reeds from a machine gun, five people got out of it.

After the armored personnel carrier left, we pushed the boat into the water and swam to collect fish. For such fishing, no one noticed the arrival of the next batch of fishermen. Imagine a picture, in the middle of the lake there is a boat. There are four people on the boat. Fog, an obligatory attribute of a reservoir in February in those parts. And on the shore are wary soldiers who came for the fish. Hearing the splash of the oars and not understanding what was happening, these militant fishermen began to concentratedly water the lake from machine guns. We froze. Machine-gun bursts rushed by, some five meters away. But after the soldiers began to shoot at the sound of a grenade launcher, as best they could, all four buried to the opposite shore. Nevertheless, I brought home two bags of fish, but after such a shake-up, I no longer went fishing.

After the bases are devastated, and the war does not end in any way, you have to climb home in search of food. Naturally, at first you pay attention to the destroyed houses. It’s not difficult to get into such a house, it’s hard to find something to eat, because besides you, at least fifty people have already climbed into this house. Therefore, gradually, you either stop looking and are content with what you brought in advance, or you start thinking about what to exchange with the military for food.

After that, looting takes on a different direction. Someone climbs into houses in search of treasures, and someone, like your obedient servant, begins to get close to the wine and vodka factory. By this time, one of the warring parties left the plant, but, as usual, did not notify the enemy of its departure. And here is the situation, between two opponents, in no man's land is the coveted alcohol. Hundreds of people are trying to get to him. Dozens succeed. So I got two flasks of alcohol and several cases of cognac and wine at home. Alcohol in war is good! After drinking a glass of alcohol in the evening, you can finally fall asleep. And you will not be woken up by any shootout under the windows, or roaming around the yard of marauders, or even a mine or shell hitting the house.

Moreover, alcohol is a currency! At the same time, the currency is hard! Everything can be exchanged for alcohol, from dry rations to captured weapons. I was not interested in weapons, but diesel fuel for lamps, food, and cigarettes, very much so. At the same time, I managed to change to alcohol and free passage through the checkpoint without a pass. So, the power of alcohol during the war is great!

Overalls

When it comes to all kinds of overalls, protective jackets, pants, high-top boots, I give just one argument. If you were a sniper, how would you react to a person in a protective uniform in the crosshairs of your crosshairs? Would you have the time and desire to consider a peaceful person in a stranger? Most likely, you would have fired first, and only then would you have figured out whether this person was peaceful or not. For the same reason, I always warn against putting any identification mark on clothing. Anything that catches your eye is likely to cause your death. My clothes were simple, an old winter jacket, old pants, a sweater and a hat. The more natural you look, the more chances you have of not being targeted.

The question is often asked why, with the abundance of weapons lying right on the ground, I didn’t get a machine gun or at least a pistol. I will answer, firstly, the abundance of weapons lying on the ground is a myth. Of course, broken, unusable weapons came across, but everything that was suitable for battle was selected. At the same time, risking your life because of a broken trunk is an unforgivable luxury. In my presence, a man was killed for lifting an empty shell from a grenade launcher. He wanted to show off in front of his wife, but forgot to warn the snipers about this. Secondly, unusable weapons will not help you in any way in case of an attack on your house, but when cleaning up, the military has a lot of questions.

Cleanup

After capturing (liberating) the area, the subunit cleans up the area so as not to have an enemy in its rear. Usually cleaning starts in the morning. A group of soldiers led by an officer block the street and begin to check every house. Houses whose inhabitants do not arouse suspicion are checked superficially. Only documents and the presence of unregistered citizens in the house, but the houses of a potential enemy are checked with special care.

The house, attic, courtyard, all utility rooms are examined. The residence permit of the residents of the house is checked, while they are required to remove outer clothing for the presence of characteristic marks from the use of weapons. The presence of bruises on the shoulders from the use of weapons, abrasions from wearing weapons on a belt, abrasions on the elbows and knees from constant movement with their use.

Also, houses are subjected to a special search, the inhabitants of which have received a denunciation of their participation in resistance. Yes, yes, yes, any of your neighbors, with whom you shared all the hardships of front-line life, whom you sheltered from bombings, with whom you ate the last piece of bread, can easily, remembering an old insult, report on you. I was denounced by a family of neighbors living behind a common fence and hiding in my cellar from the bombing. According to their denunciation, the inspection of my house lasted from the morning until the curfew. And only the intercession of the other neighbors, ready to develop into an open clash between soldiers and grandmothers, kept the officer from taking me to the commandant's office for a complete check.

There are many cleanups. Each unit, replacing the departed, conducts its own cleansing, but the cleansing carried out by the forces of the internal troops and the riot police is more terrible than the army cleansing. It is more terrible because the army units, having checked for the presence or absence of weapons and for the absence of those not registered in the house, lose interest in the street, but during the cleansing carried out by the explosives or riot police, citizens disloyal to the authorities are also revealed. Usually all the remaining townspeople fell into this category.

Therefore, OMON checks are carried out with special cynicism and cruelty. The first weapon in clearing is benevolence. If you respect the soldiers and officers conducting the search, if you yourself are sure that there is nothing forbidden in the house and yard, if you calmly, holding out documents, stand at gunpoint of a soldier, move only at the request to open this or that door, then we can assume that the cleanup will be carried out without nit-picking and excessive nervousness. When checking, you should not take your eyes off the interlocutor, you should also not “eat with your eyes”. Nervous behavior, shifty eyes, prolonged silence or inappropriate talkativeness, reluctance to open doors or excessive obsequiousness, all this can lead to increased attention, and sometimes to nitpicking.

Just treat the sweep as a necessary nuisance. The military also does not want to spend it for a particularly long time, because there are a lot of houses on the street. Get up where ordered, calmly submit the required documents, open the doors of the house and utility rooms. The less nervous you are, the faster this procedure will end. After a search in the house, you can invite the officer to the house, and after inviting him, offer him tea or compote. I myself did not offer, for the reason described above, but several times I heard from other residents that this method led to an acceleration of the search.

Getting Around the City

Tip one: moving around the city is carried out only in daylight. Any movement after dark increases the chances of death. How many people walk down the street at night? The military usually carry out the redeployment of troops, the delivery of ammunition, reconnaissance. But the military has radio communications, they warn each other in advance about approaching the place of hostilities. A peaceful person does not have radio communications, and therefore any soldier, machine gunner, sniper, at the sight of him, immediately opens fire. And he's right. He is not obliged to find out what famously drove you out of the house into such darkness. In the dark, the likelihood of an attack on him is much higher than in the daytime, and therefore the use of weapons is not an extra precaution. When advancing during the day, you are visible and if you do not look like the enemy, then there is no point in the military to shoot at you.

Another question, how to move around the area under shelling? I will answer in one word, no way. If when shooting from a manual automatic weapons there is still a chance to crawl over, run across, and other “retreats”, then during shelling, especially mortar shelling, the best way is to simply wait out the shelling in the shelter. But what if the shelling caught you on the street? Do not panic, look for a basement, a gap, an entrance to the house. Any building, at the very least, but can protect you from shell fragments and crumbling construction debris. From a direct hit - unlikely, but will it be a direct hit? In my practice, it was the panic caused by the shelling that was the most difficult factor. And usually rushing and panicking people perished. A calmly hiding person usually survived, while a running and screaming person died in the first minutes from fragments.

Most people during the war preferred to move along sidewalks along fences and houses. At the same time, almost the main streets of the city were chosen. Naturally, they died under the bullets and shells of the warring parties, and after all, just walk two hundred meters to the neighboring parallel street. Yes, it’s scary, yes, they shoot, but the likelihood that the neighboring street is also under fire is small. Especially if the next street is a narrow lane. All combat operations are conducted along the central streets. Equipment can pass through them, the most beautiful multi-storey buildings stand on them. There is where to build a defense, there is a place to maneuver to break this defense. And literally nearby there are streets in which it is simply not convenient to conduct military operations, except for bypassing the enemy from the rear. Yes, they are usually also under fire, but no matter how many attackers and defenders there are, blocking all the streets with a sufficiently large number of troops is still not realistic.

The main fighting takes place on the industrial outskirts and closer to the city center. Why? Because the center of the city is government buildings. The capture of the city center deprives the defenders of general control, and also demoralizes them. Industrial areas can be involved in the production and repair of equipment. Therefore, the capture of these areas is the deprivation of the defenders of the industrial base. Therefore, where should a peaceful person move in a war-torn city? There is only one way out - to sleeping areas and the private sector. Unfortunately, in our country the location of sleeping areas alternates with the location of industrial facilities. Therefore, even in residential areas, combat clashes of opposing armies can occur. But, if in the center these hostilities take place with all the cruelty and intensity, then the closer to the outskirts, the battles develop into separate, short skirmishes. Consequently, the resident of the outskirts is in a much better position than the resident of the city center. And in cases of forced movement of a person around the city, this factor must be taken into account.

To obtain more complete information about the state of affairs, you should find the nearest high point of the city. Observation from a height of the movement of troops, both defending and attacking, can give the layman much more information than questioning refugees or listening to radio and TV broadcasts.

Refugees

Refugees spend the night along the way, where they have to, they eat what they have in store or what compassionate residents have brought to them. Many are asking to stay. Refugees stayed at my place more than once. But often those who would like to appropriate your property are disguised as refugees. So, a seemingly harmless mother with a child may well turn out to be a gunner for a gang of marauders. And you will know about it only when you have to beg yourself because of excessive kindness. Sometimes a group of people asking for a lodging for the night may turn out to be a gang of well-prepared criminals.

How to separate a real refugee from a person who is preparing an unexpected “surprise” for you? First rule: question. Usually a person who has come out of hell, when asked where he is from, will answer with the peaceful name of the street on which he lived, or simply tell you the area. A prepared person will answer in detail, and even tell you the story of the risk to life he left his home, and along the way he will try to partially entrust the solution of his problem to you. Immediately there is a sense of preparedness of the spoken speech. Immediately take note of this and proceed to the next: inspection.

In what does a person jump out of the house in case of trouble? That's right, at home. That is, what was worn, maximum outerwear, it is, albeit dirty, torn, but normal clothes. But I had to see, or skillfully torn rags, or good things, not soiled and not torn. In the first case, it is a woman dressed in a coat, but holding the hand of an almost undressed child. In the second, a gentleman in a leather coat, military boots, a chic sweater, a nutria hat. Both in the first and in the second case, I was given a short but capacious story about how many hardships a person has experienced and while I’m normally “fat” here, he had to get out of this ... But won’t I accept him for the night? After my refusal, so many reproaches were poured on me that a person after that cannot but accept. You can accuse me of heartlessness, after this I just closed the door and went into the house. And the person reproaching me, apparently, was not starving, and he was fine with sleep, judging by the way he looked.

But even more in my rightness in choosing refugees, I was approved by a third person. It was a guy dressed in rags, with a haggard face, nervous and noisy. He simply demanded that I let him in, since I am warm here, and he has to wander due to loss of housing. Looking closely, I suddenly recognize in him a man who lives three blocks from my house, in peacetime - a drunkard and a petty thief. But, without showing any sign, I begin to ask him about where he lived, how did it happen that he had to run away? In response, they told me about a non-existent street, about a non-existent address, and when they learned that I was not Russian, and about how the brutal Russian troops, having killed everyone, but for some reason left him alive, destroyed his housing. All this was said with such anguish and nervousness that if I did not recognize him, I would shed tears. Yes, I heard about similar antics of the military on both sides over civilians. But not in this case. When I reminded him that in peacetime we often crossed paths due to living in the same area, the flow of reproaches sharply turned into threats and insults. I had not only to close the door right in front of my nose, but also to slam it hard on the nose itself.

So, if you're not sure that a guest won't stab you at night because of your wife's pair of gold earrings or a sack of potatoes, don't risk it. Let this be your worst sin. Usually catastrophes such as wars, fires and floods reveal the most hidden vices in people's characters. It seems that you have known this person for more than a day, it seems that you even became friends, but you meet him in an unusual setting and he, instead of supporting you, is ready to kill you. Any person who embarks on the path of looting, first of all, goes to rob those who have more than once been at home, where everything is familiar to him, where he knows for sure that there are no owners and there is no one to fight back. Therefore, first of all, beware of people who were on friendly terms with you in peacetime.

buddies

No one knows how war will change a person. If you look at yourself, you can see that you are no longer what you imagined yourself to be. Much of the human character, good and bad, the war mercilessly shuffles and exposes.

Therefore, do not try to treat your old friends the same way as in peacetime, most likely you will not succeed. It is simply impossible for a person to survive in isolation during a war. Communication is necessary and important, but first try to understand what is behind this communication. May God grant that a person comes to you with good intentions. After all, it may well happen that by opening the door to a friend, you will receive a bullet in the forehead. Think about it well!

Women

The woman is the mother. She always takes care of you. Of course, she knows everything much better and therefore has the right to impose her decision. She is afraid for you and it is easier for her to sit without food and water than to let you take risks. Each scratch on your body will be perceived by her as a huge wound, once again proving that it was not in vain that she was against unnecessary risk. War is a common excuse for many mothers to put their child in "hedgehogs". So, the best way out is a hasty evacuation of the mother away from explosions and shooting. If there is no way to evacuate, then go for a trick, give her the “most important task” and constantly remind her that this “task” is the most responsible and dangerous. I managed to send my parents away from sin to relatives in another republic, but my neighbor did not. And an adult man, succumbing to the persuasion of his mother, spent the whole war sitting in the basement and starving. He survived, but I also survived.

A woman is a wife. This category of women always has special rights to men. Therefore, the constant worry about the life and health of the husband is mixed with concern about the life and health of the children. As a result of this constant anxiety, the wife either tries to keep her husband close, or drives him to do everything in order to feed the children. However, both options are constantly changing.

The worst thing for a man is an authoritarian wife. Confused, she herself will easily drive the whole family into a panic, and instead of trying to establish a more tolerable life, the man makes titanic efforts to establish order. Immediately, at the first volleys, take the threads of control into your own hands, divide the responsibilities of each family member. Allocate to each his area of ​​​​responsibility, and put his wife in charge of all this complex mechanism, stipulating for himself a “secondary role” in providing food and water. Then no one will prevent you from making the most risky and most productive sorties, moreover, the wife, commanding the family, will relieve you of the obligation to do it yourself.

The woman is a daughter. How younger daughter, the easier it is to persuade her not to be naughty and obey her mother, but an adult daughter is a huge risk for the survival of the whole family! Since the fighters of any army in the world are primarily men, and a woman in war is a rare phenomenon, frequent visits to your home and constant harassment are guaranteed by the right of the strong. Conclusion, evacuation with the mother! If it does not work out, the strictest order from the house is not to stick out and flicker less in the windows.

The worst option, a woman is a friend. Forget about your romantic nonsense, about how you save her from the encroachments of thousands of men, how you go for water and outings together, better leave her at home! At the same time, it is advisable to make sure that at home, this is exactly at home, and not in the yard or on the street nearby. Not only will there be many applicants for the possession of your girlfriend, she herself can push you to commit a rash act or to commit a crime. At the same time, she herself calmly remains on the sidelines, looking at the “heroic attempts of her knight”

Neighbours

Sooner or later, but one army leaves the city, while the second enters it. Supplies by that time are depleted, there is nowhere to take them. Cleansing of houses by front-line units and riot police has already ended. It's time for a peaceful life. The laws of the past government are no longer in effect, the laws of the current one are not yet in effect. The city is overflowing with troops, equipment, journalists, charitable organizations. Suddenly you learn about the appearance of the city administration. Often, these are the same people who were at the helm under the previous government. It seems to be the time to breathe a sigh of relief, the war has passed, you are alive, the family has not suffered. A person relaxes and immediately, in the form of punishment, gets new, very unpleasant, problems. The first one is neighbors.

So neighbors. No, not those who sat under the explosions in the basements, not those who looked at you with hungry eyes, but those who managed to leave before the complete blockade of the city. They return to their homes. And the houses were opened, and things were stolen, and even shit in the rooms. Naturally, the most offended are these neighbors. They don't give a damn about the fact that you, being in the city, risking your life, saved their shelter and a small fraction of their property, they ask the question, why didn't you save everything. There is no limit to their indignation, and the fact that without you, they would have nowhere to return, does not bother them at all. There is someone to ask, there is someone to blame. Stayed - stole. Iron logic!

On the head of a person who has gone through seven circles of hell, not thanks are poured, but accusations. A flask taken during the war can turn into accusing you of completely plundering their home. Threats will be poured in, attempts to search for your things from you, a demand to return everything that was lost in their house. Your argument that the house was without owners, that there were cleansings and robberies, that marauders of all colors and stripes visited their house as an interest club, are immediately brushed aside by the neighbors - you stayed, you stole. They cannot make claims to someone else, during the robbery they were not there, so all the curses and all the distrust are directed to the “beloved” neighbor.

Therefore, take my advice: do not take a gram of flour, or a sip of water, or a carnation from your neighbor's house! No matter how close you were to him before the war. And never take responsibility for the safety of his home. They plunder, let them steal, break, and to hell with it! The war will still draw a line between those who left and those who remain. Those who were lucky enough to leave, returning and seeing what was left of their housing, will never understand the one who stayed and whose efforts, at least something was preserved.

Water again

New power - new orders. When you come again for water, you suddenly find closed tanks and guards near them. A crowd will gather, thirsty for moisture, and they will explain to this crowd that it turns out to be dangerous to drink this water, that the administration and philanthropists have allocated funds to repair the water supply to improve the water supply to the population, and until it is repaired, water will be delivered to you by road. True, there is little transport left, so water will be delivered to a limited extent. A plastic reservoir with taps for water intake will be installed in the school yard, and this water will be brought in by the hour. Imagine a crowd of people who came to the watering hole at the appointed time, a limited number of taps, a crush, yelling, tears, fights for the queue and other entertainment, romance!

humanitarian aid

Another romantic event is the distribution of humanitarian aid. This is where the strongest shake-up for your already crippled psyche is. In one of the houses of the quarter, a room will be allocated for the storage and distribution of humanitarian aid.

You don't know what humanitarian aid is? I explain. This is what appears first of all in the bazaars during the war in cities close to the focus of the conflict. At the same time, there is a lot of "humanitarian aid" in the bazaars, but for money, but in places of direct use it is usually scarce, but free of charge. So little that a box of food for one person for three to five days is given out for three or even five people. The small amount of humanitarian aid is compensated by the delivery of products from other cities not affected by the war. These products are also given away for free. The difference between “humanitarian aid” and these products is only one, if “humanitarian aid” can be eaten, albeit with difficulty, then these products are often not suitable for food. So in our quarter they gave out black flour and with worms, sunflower oil, unusable, canned food that explodes when opened, wormy beans.

And now, the biggest curiosity. The issuance of humanitarian aid begins to be produced not in wartime, when people go to crime for the sake of food, but after, when residents who left the city during the war arrive. And it is they who get the lion's share of the products. Since they have more strength, and there was less hassle. Man, past the war, usually just give up and leave to get food in the old, proven way.

Treatment

Usually, people rarely get sick in war, but if they get sick, they either recover quickly or die just as quickly. But after the war, all the stress that a once peaceful person received instantly turns into a whole bunch of sores that suddenly crawled out. Teeth instantly fall out, a stomach ulcer appears, and headaches begin to torment. A person cannot fall asleep, and if he sleeps, then it is bad, and he does not get enough sleep.

This is just a modest list of my own illnesses. I've seen lists five times as long. Treatment costs money and time, and a person who has survived in such a “meat grinder” usually appreciates both. Therefore, it is simply not treated or heals quickly. I would not advise you to treat your body so disdainfully, unless, of course, in the process of survival you are not tired of living.

humiliation

There are many more types of "folk entertainment" designed to make life easier for a person after serious trials they have endured. The issuance of compensation for destroyed housing, the issuance of clothing, the collection of lost documents, this is not a complete list. But, as it was not noticed by me, basically all these events, instead of helping a person, lead to his complete humiliation, and if we add to this list the search for missing relatives, the identification of loved ones in the corpses that have lain for a long time in the "fraternal" burial grounds, then the situation in general becomes simply terrifying. Man, even after a long time after the war, continues to bear his cross. He is stunned, confused, often does not know the laws, any lie can be “pushed” to him and he will believe. In addition, the time of pity and participation for this person by other people who have not passed and do not know what war is, is replaced by irritation. And often you begin to hear, in response to a request for help, a mean thing - “there was nothing to sit there. Everyone has their own problems"

Work

Another problem that arises immediately after the war is work. More precisely, its absence. Your previous jobs have been destroyed. Funding for these organizations has not yet begun. Work becomes free entertainment. There is, of course, a way out, to go to a construction site, there is a lot to build and restore after the war, but, taking advantage of the complete lack of human money, you will be paid a penny for your work.

Another way out is the market. At total absence shops, the bazaar becomes the only place to buy something and almost the only place to work. But the bazaar is good for those who exhibit their goods. Therefore, during the war, take care of the choice of goods, warehousing, and as soon as the guns stop firing, feel free to start trading. Your first customers will be the military, and then local population pull up. And the sooner you start the sale season, the more successful your business will be.

Another opportunity to earn money in the post-war city is to open your own business. Of all the above vacancies, this one is perhaps the most lucrative. So one of my relatives, who worked as a baker for a long time before the war, opened his own bakery after the war, and a woman I know, who has extensive experience in dental treatment, opened a dental office. At the same time, many organizations that have the right to ban your small business are either absent due to the war, or have not yet been formed, or turn a blind eye to the lack of the necessary documents and the required conditions for clients. After all, those who work in these organizations also sat in basements, also suffered from hunger, bombing and other hardships. These people perfectly understand the person who opened, for example, a cafe, but did not ensure the availability of running water and sewerage. Such people themselves visit such establishments, eat, treat their teeth, and get their hair cut. The “island of peaceful life” created by you allows them, at least for a while, to forget that the whole city is in ruins, that the war is still going on, at least for a while, to get into this very, so long forgotten, peaceful life.

Post-war synthrom

Gradually there is a division among the people who went through the war. Many flaunt the very fact of living in the city during the war. They begin to look down on their neighbors, who left on time. This bravado grows out of the inability to rebuild on peaceful tracks in time. The resulting social isolation, due to complete mental devastation. A person closes himself within the limits of his yard and within the limits of his experiences. Every day he "loses" in his memories the horror that he had to endure. Such people simply need the help of a psychologist, but they do not know how and where to get it. The post-war syndrome can last for years, completely draining all mental strength from a person.

Another group of people is trying to quickly forget about what they had to endure. Usually, such people leave their place of residence and go far away. This gives them an illusory hope, not seeing the city of their life, mixing with people who have not experienced this, to forget what happened. But, as practice shows, it is impossible to forget anything. A person constantly imposes on himself and others the traditions and principles of his usual life, or completely rejects in himself that which at least somewhat reminds him of the past. Example: not drinking man, getting into an unfamiliar atmosphere after the war, easily becomes an inveterate drunkard. A group of such people living, by the will of fate, in another city, at first tend to isolate themselves in their usual area, but later the group breaks up. Each of the former members of the group distances itself from the rest. It ceases to maintain contact, and over time, it is lost.

A large number of people are trying to compensate for their suffering by acquiring financial and material goods. By constant speculation on the fact that they have experienced the risk of destruction, these people seek to improve their material and living conditions. Usually, such a group is made up of members of the same family who lost relatives, housing, and acquired property in the war. Having moved to another city, or being in a city that went through the war, they constantly demand attention to their problems, reminding them that these problems arose through no fault of their own. This line of behavior usually helps them to settle in a new place, but the services provided to them are constantly not enough, and therefore the complaints continue, leading to the formation of a negative opinion about such a person. Which, in turn, does not lead to adaptation to a new place of residence, but to complete isolation. The disease of such a contingent of people is the absence of their usual way of life, the constant reminder of what they have lived.

And the last category is people who are ashamed of what they had to endure. A person of this category usually does not talk about his life. He creates the appearance of harmonious adaptation in an unusual place for himself, but, alas, this is only an appearance. Such people are most susceptible to mental illness and early death. The whole problem of such a person is the inability to express what torments him.

The problem of all the groups I have listed - constant readiness to the possibility of repeating the previous experience. We must not forget that people who have gone through hell once are ready for its return. Their moral and spiritual attitudes have undergone changes. The worldview of such a person differs significantly from the worldview of a peaceful citizen. If we add to this an improved sense of the emergence of a threat, constant mental readiness, an altered logic of behavior, then in the event of a threat of a repetition of a lived situation, this person has a much better chance of survival. Simply put, in such a situation, he knows what to do, where to run, where to hide, what to take with him, and what to get "in the field." The “husk” of civilization and the moral principles of peacetime instantly fly off from him.